Ambient Curation #3 ~ Ethereal tape loops, cryptic sampling and star-studded architecture
The sun is starting to shine from the place I'm writing this, and it's a wonderful day to explore some new music. Our editor Ruben van Dijk has compiled some wonderful releases for you!
African-American Sound Recordings - Be Somewhere Twice \ D.O.T.
CRYPTIC / SAMPLING / INDUSTRIAL
If you're listening to African-American Sound Recordings’ Be Somewhere Twice and wondering why everything about it feels so… different, it might help to know that this is a side project of Tennessee rapper and producer Cities Aviv. Released almost as an afterthought – it's as if he forgot to make this available on Bandcamp – the 22 songs here might be sketches, works in progress, that work just as well as musique concrète, an almost-invitation to freestyle. Cities Aviv has always been indebted to the productional work of Madlib, and this here often feels like one of his, half-burnt, orbiting a black hole. Genre-bending, face-melting.
Will Samson - Songs Of Beginning And Belonging | DAUW
TAPE LOOPS / INNER PEACE / ETHEREAL
Will Samson made his first ambient album in a decade in his home studio in Almada, Portugal, overlooking the river Tejo and, across the water, Lisbon. But from the sound of Songs Of Beginning And Belonging, you'd think he was holed up in some remote spa resort, surrounded by lush greenery. Samson's minimal arrangements are all about inner peace and renewal, without ever veering into “lifehack" territory. The tranquility this album provides is easily accessible but genuine, like a leisurely mountain stroll (except for maybe the final song, ‘For Now’, which is much more of A Short Hike).
Olga Anna Markowska - ISKRA \ MIASMAH RECORDINGS
MODERN CLASSICAL / CELLO / MELANCHOLIC
In her visual work, interdisciplinary artist Olga Anna Markowska actively seeks out the landscapes in her native Poland where the country's history of "sorrow and resilience" is most tangible, such as in the region of Podlasie. Her debut album ISKRA, eight years in the making, similarly foregrounds such deeply melancholic, place-specific memories. The cello, an instrument Markowska learned to play as a child but hadn't touched for years, is the dominant sound here, and she plays it in much the same way she's made wax molds of her own skin, transforming “[memories] of physical contact with another person [...] into an artifact which in turn becomes subject to the laws of decay".
Lawrence English - Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds \ ROOM40
DRONE / ARCHITECTURE / STAR-STUDDED
It can't have been that difficult for Lawrence English to convince some of ambient's biggest heavyweights to appear on his latest album, Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds. He might be second to just Taylor Deupree when it comes to the amount of ambient albums mastered. And so here we find Jim O'Rourke, Claire Rousay, Dean Hurley, Chuck Johnson, Chris Abrahams, and many others, in one continuous movement. It's an album as a building; the brand new Naala Badu building at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to be precise. As English writes: "Whilst the architectural and material features of space might remain somewhat constant, the people, objects, atmospheres, and encounters that fill them are forever collapsing into memory.” While the spatial confines of ETHKIB are steady all the way through, its many visitors never allow you to get bored, making this English's most essential album in years.
daily rituals - careful not to break \ SEIL RECORDS
PEACEFUL / ASMR / ELECTROACOUSTIC
You could google search the value of maintaining daily rituals, or you can just put on daily rituals' careful not to break and get the desired effect. Released through the ever-optimistic Seil Records, San Diego-based composer Brandon Tani directs our attention to the absolute minutiae of daily life – with little more than piano and/or acoustic guitar, field recordings, and an occasional wave of synths, as if to usher you in and out of focus. The goal here is "to hold … that which is both common and unique at once", such as on 'all the windows are taken out', which feels like one of the earliest warm days of the year. You're sitting on your balcony, eyes shut, facing the sun, and someone on your block's decided it's high-time for some house repairs. Somehow it feels perfect.
Playlist
All of these releases are featured in our Spotify playlist which you can check out below! Thanks for reading along and see you next time. If you enjoy this music, grab some merch on their bandcamp or consider going to a show. Sharing the art you love helps the artists tremendously. Check out our label’s releases on Bandcamp too!